Contents

Character

Dalton was a daring and bloodthirsty man. He was loved by his men but not by his wives, as he tired of women quickly.[3] Despite his youth, Dalton was shrewd.[3]

History

Youth

The wild young son of the heir to Pyke, Dalton rowed at age five and reaved at ten, sailing with his uncle to plunder the pirate towns of the Basilisk Isles. By fourteen, Dalton had sailed as far as Old Ghis, fought in a dozen actions, and claimed four salt wives.[3]

Dalton claimed a Valyrian steel longsword, which he named Nightfall, off a dead corsair. While fighting in the Stepstones as a sellsail, the fifteen-year-old Dalton avenged his uncle after watching his death. Because Dalton emerged from the fight drenched in blood from a dozen wounds, men began calling him the Red Kraken. Later in the same year, Dalton returned to the Iron Islands to claim the Seastone Chair after hearing of his father's death. Immediately he began to build longships, forge swords, and train fighters, citing that "the storm is coming" as the reason.[3]

Death

While sleeping in Lord Farman's bedchamber at Faircastle in 133 AC, Dalton was killed when one of his salt wives, the girl Tess, cut his throat with his own dagger before throwing herself into the sea. As the Red Kraken had never taken a rock wife, his heirs were two young salt sons at Pyke, Toron and Rodrik. Dalton also had three sisters and several ambitious cousins.[8] Toron was only five years old,[8] and within hours of the Red Kraken's death a bloody struggle for succession broke out among the ironborn.[3] Hundreds of ironmen were killed as Fair Isle rose in rebellion.[8] Faircastle held out for a time, but the castle fell after Gunthor Goodbrother slew Alester Wynch while fighting for another of Dalton's salt wives, Lysa Farman.[8] Having arrived to find Dalton already dead, Alyn Oakenfist left a third of his fleet with the westermen and returned home for the crownlands.[8]